Slug finishing means for line casting machines



Oct. 17, 1933.

LE ROY w. WILLIS SLUG FINISHING MEANS FOR LINE CASTING MACHINES FiledMarch 3, 1932 ATTONNEY Patented Oct; 17, 1933 v UNITED STATES SLUGFINISHING MEANS FOR LINE CASTING MACHINES Le Roy W. Willis,Stamford,0onn., assignor to Intertype Corporation, Brooklyn, N. Y., a,cor-' poration of New York Application March 3, 1932, Serial No.596,609, v

and in Germany April 28, 1931' I 6 Claims.

The present invention relates to improvements in line casting machinesand. more especially to those employing a mold to which a line ofcharacter bearing matrices is presented and in which 5 a type slug iscast against the character bearing edges of the matrices so that theslug will bear type characters along an edge thereof, and the object ofthe invention is to provide means on such a machine to dress or finishthe printing or I impression surfaces of the type characters on slugscast therein, while the slugs are positively held in the mold and priorto their ejection therefrom. j J In using line casting machines of theclass referred to, it has been found that the printing or impressionsurfaces of the type characters on slugs cast in such machines are notsufliciently smooth or even to produce good print, due to imperfectionsin the surfaces of the type characters, this being especially true ofthe larger characters used for advertising, display lines or headings,and 'beingalso true of the smaller as well'as the larger characters whenprinting is to be 'ldonedirectly from the slugs, these imperfectio'nsbeing due to several causes, as, for example, the'presence'ofair in themold and the throat of themetal pot and which becomes mixed with themolten metal when the latter is" suddenly injected into the'mold andagainst the line of matrices, the characters on which act as pocketsinto which such, air becomes trapped, and such imperfections being-alsodue to the fact that the "type metalfinjected into the mold chills veryrapidly and shrinkage to varying degrees takes place throughout theextent of the slug.

The presentinvention provides means'to insure an even type highfinish'to all of the characterson the slugs cast in the machine, therebynot-only eliminating imperfections in thepr'inted or other impressionsmadetherefrom but also conditioning the surfaces of the type charactersto receive and hold" ink' thereon in an evenly distributed manner, thusreducing to a minimum, and in some cases eliminating entirely, thenecessity of dressing off the characters in the printing; forms, therebysaving much time and ,labor and improving the printing quality of theslugs produced on these machines, over that heretofore possible withoutrequiring additional manual or machine surfacing of the slugs to linecasting machine provided with slug dressing "and itis rigidly secured tothe base 9 of the .machin'e' through the connecting support or a orfinishingmeans embodying the present in'-} vention'; e w 4 t Fig. 2 is aside elevation of the structure shown in Fig; 1 as viewed from the leftthereof; and Fig. 3 is a detailed enlarged sectional view taken ontheline 3-3 in Fig. ,l. H

Similar parts are designated by the same reference characters in thedifferent figures.

The present invention is shown in the present instance applied to a linecasting machine of well known construction, 1 representing the usua1rotatable mold wheel which is supported centrally for rotation and whichcarries a suit- 1 'able number of molds 2 in which the type slugs in usemay be'brought into active position,

through the usual driving pinion 3, to receive metal'from the usualmetal pot 4which tilts forwardly and rearwardly about its bearing 5 tocarry its mouth 6 into and out of 'enga'geg;

ment with the rear face of the 'moldin 'use on the mold wheel. The moldgear support 8 constitutes a part of themachine frame asusual,

bracket 10. The mold wheel and its operating means just described may beconstructed and operative in the usual and well known manner,

the driving pinion 3 being adapted for manual manipulation by the usualmold turning handle '7 so that any desired moldflon the mold wheel maybe brought into active'position, such mold being in horizontaloruppermost position during the casting of a slug therein by the injectionof metal into the rear side of this mold while its front face engagesandis closed by a line "of character-bearing matrices which arepresented in the, usual manner to the front of the mold, and after. aslug has been cast in the mold, the driving pinion 3 is rotated througha the usual means torota te'the mold wheel, in the direction of thearrow, Fig. 1, through threefourths of a revolution, thus bringing themold containing the slug into the vertical position occupied by the mold2 the mold containingthe slug being then positioned in front 'of theusual ejector which then operates to remove the slug from the mold,after which the driving pinion 3 again rotates to turn the mold wheel inthe 9 same direction through the remaining one--- fourth of arevolution, thereby returning the mold in use to casting position,preparatory to the casting of another slug therein. The means shown inthe present instance for carrying out the present invention comprises ashelf or bracket 11 which is suitably secured to the machine frame toprovide 'a mounting for an electric motor or-other suitable drivingdevice 12 for rotating a finishing head 13 which constitutes the slugfinishing element according to the present invention. This finishinghead,

which may be of any suitable form and conbelt 19 to a cooperating pulleyon the shaft of .the motor or driving device, 12.

The finishing head 13 is thus mounted so that it is at the front of themold wheel and opposite to the path of the cavity in the mold as thelatter is carried around by the rotation of the mold wheel. Means isprovided for holding the finishing head in its operating position, suchmeans comprising preferably a spring 20 one end of which is connectedto'a pin 21 on the inachine frame and the. other end of which is con-'nected to a pin. 22 on the arm 16, the tension of this spring servingto swing the arm 16 and the finishing head 13 toward the mold wheel,

about the shaft 17 as a center, so-that the finishing head will be in aposition to act on the surfaces of.-the type characters son a slug Swhich has been cast in the mold, the type characters projecting as usualforwardly beyond the front face of the mold, due to the casting of the.type

characters against the character .faces of the 4 'matrices in which thecharacters are punched in intaglio, and'the length of the type face onthe Q slug being traversed by the finishing head during the rotation ofthe mold wheel which carries the slug containing mold past the finishinghead, the finishing head being of sufficient axial length to allow forthe different circles in which the center and ends of the'slugv travel,

Means is provided, for accurately positioning the finishing head withrespect to the surfaces of the characters on the slugoin the mold sothat the surfaces of the type characters will be 'ffinished evenly andto uniform depth, such 'means preferably comprising, as shown in thepresent instance, an arm 24 which may be rotatably mounted on the shaft14, this arm carrying aroller 25 which bears or travels on the forwardfinished face of the rim 26 of the mold wheel. The arm 24 may be set oradjusted in different angular positions about the shaft 14 by anadjusting screw 27 which is threaded in a lug 28 attached to or formedas a part of the bearing sleeve 15, such setting of the arm 24 indifferent angular positions aboutthe axis of the shaft 14 while theroller 25 rests against the rim 26 of the mold wheel determining thedistance. of the operative face of the finishing head I in front of themold and hence its operative re- 1ation-with, the forward surfaces ofthe type head out of operative position when desired as,

for example, when the slugs are to be cast with 1 relatively smallcharacters which, in practice,

will not always require finishing, such means, as

shown in the present instance, comprising a handle 29 which may bepivoted to the machine frame as by a screw 30, the handle having arecess 31 in its under side and a cam-like surface 31 at the rear sidethereof to engage the bearing sleeve 15, so that when the handle 29 ispressed downwardly, the surface 31 will bear against the rear side ofthe bearing sleeve 15 and will force the latter and the finishing head13 forwardly or into inoperative position beyond the range of the slugsas they are carried around by the rotation of the mold Wheel. When thehandle 29 is lifted into the position shown in Fig. 2 the bearing sleeve15 and the finishing head 13 will move rearwardly under the pull of thespring 20, and the finishing head will be then held in its operativeposition to act upon the type surfaces of the slugs carried around bythe mold wheel, the rearward movement of the finishing head beinglimited by engagement of the set screw 27 with the arm 24 and thecontact of the roller 25 on the latter with the rim 26 of the moldwheel, the contact of the roller. 25. with the rim of the mold wheelgauging the depth of the dressing or finishing action produced'by thefinishing head upon the type faces of theslugs. The finishing head 13may be removably. but securely held on the shaft 14 by providing thelatter with a fiat or squared'portion and providing the finishing headwith a set screw 32.

In order that the mold disk may be thrown forwardly out of its normaloperating position, after the usual visein the machine has been dropped,andthus provide access to themouthpiece of the metal pot, as isoccasionally done in machines of this class, without interference fromthe slug finishing device, ,one end of the spring20, as for example therear endas shown,

is provided with an open hook to detachably en- 7 gage the pin 21,detachment of the spring'jfrom head and other partscarrie'd thereby toswing forwardly about the shaft 1'7 until; the arm 16 rests against alug 11 which maybe formed, as 20 The operation of .aline casting machineequipped with slug finishing'mea'ns ashereinbefore described is asfollows: I Assuming that the uppermost mold 2 is in useland is inoperative casting position, a type slug would be casttherein in theusual manner, after the metal ,pot 4 has been moved forwardly to locktightly against the rear face of the mold, and after the metal pot hasreceded rearwardly following the cast, the mold wheel will'be caused .torotate'in the usual manner through three fourths ,of .a revolution inthe direction indicated by the ar row in Fig. 1, thus bringingthe moldcontaining the slug to the vertical position represented by the positionoccupied by the mold 2 and duringthisrotation of the mold wheel, themold containing the slug will pass the finishing h'ead'l3 and duringsuch passage of the mold containing thev slug the front surfaces of thecharacterv bearing edge of the slug will be finished ,by the dressing orfinishing head 13 which is revolved by the motor or driving means 12,preferably in the preferably running continuouslywhile the line castingmachine is in operation. The dressing this pin enabling the arm 16 andthe finishing or finishing action thus produced by the head 13 upon thecharacter bearing edge of the slug while the latter is being carriedfrom casting position to ejecting position by the rotation of the moldwheel causes the characters on the slug to be finished or dressed toexactly standard type high measure, and such finishing operationmoreover is performed quickly and thoroughly while the slug is stillheld firmly and positively in the mold.

The adjusting member 24 permits accurate setting of the finishing head13 to regulate its depth of action with respect to the type characterson the slugs, and the contact -of the roller 25 on this adjusting memberwith the face of the mold wheel rim 26 guides the finishing head so thatit will always remain a true distance from the faces of the molds on themold wheel, notwithstanding that the mold wheel might run slightly outof true, due to warpage or looseness in its bearings.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a line casting machine, the combination of a mold carrying member,and a cooperative rotary abrading device to act upon the type face of aslug in a mold carried by said member, said member and device beingrelatively movable to cause the finishing device to traverse the lengthof the type face of the slug and finish evenly the cast surfaces of saidtype face.

2. In a line casting machine, the combination of a rotatable mold wheelcarrying a type slug casting mold, and a rotary power driven abradingand polishing device located opposite to the face of the mold wheel toact on the type face of a slug in the mold during rotation of the moldwheel to evenly finish and polish the cast surfaces of said type face.

3. In a line casting machine, the combination of a rotatable mold wheelcarrying a type slugcasting mold, a dressing device located opposite tothe face of the mold wheel to act on the type face of a slug in the moldduring rotation of the mold wheel, means yieldingly acting to move saiddevice into operative position, and means for rendering said deviceinoperative.

4. In a line casting machine, the combination of a rotatable mold wheelcarrying a type slug casting mold, a dressing device mounted relativelyto the mold wheel to act on the type face of a slug in the mold duringrotation of the mold wheel, gauging means between the mold wheel andsaiddevice for positioning said device relatively to the type face ofthe slug, means for yieldingly holding said device in operative posi-vtion against said gauging means, and means for rendering said deviceinoperative.

5. In a line casting machine, the combination of a member carrying atype slug casting mold, a cooperative finishing device to act upon thetype face of a slug in the mold, said member and device being relativelymovable to cause the finishing device to traverse the length of the typeface of the slug, and gauging means interposed between said member anddevice for relatively positioning the latter and the type face of theslug.

6. In a line casting machine, the combination of -a rotatable mold wheelcarrying a type slug casting mold, a dressing'device mounted to act onthe type face of a slug in the mold during rotation of the mold wheel,and a gauging device for the dressing device connected to the latter andbearing on and guided by the mold wheel.

LE ROY w. WILLIS.

